Local News

Police are appealing for information after a suspicious incident in Redcar in which a man approached two teenage girls;

Teesside MP Simon Clarke has left his post as the nation's Levelling Up Sectretary under the new Prime Minister;

...and a panel of MPs has heard that local fishermen are terrified of Teesworks dredging going ahead next year - with one claiming the North Sea is experiencing an ‘extinction episode’.

Police are appealing for information after a suspicious incident in Redcar in which a man approached two teenage girls.

The girls contacted police on Monday evening at 7.40pm reporting they were outside the Regent Cinema when an unknown man approached them, asking their age and offering them a cigarette which they declined.

He then asked if they wanted to "rate" a photograph of him, and the girls - suspecting it might be an explicit photo - declined and said they would contact police.

At this point he ran off into an alley off Station Road.

The man is described as white, around 30 years old and 6 feet tall with a "beer belly", and very short spiky black hair.

He was wearing jeans and a blue and white football shirt.

It's believed the man had come from Station Road and not out of the cinema.

Witnesses including drivers with dash cam footage, or anyone else who may be able to help, are asked to contact Cleveland Police on the non-emergency number 101.

Teesside MP Simon Clarke has left his post as the nation's Levelling Up Sectretary under the new Prime Minister.

Mr Clarke, who just yesterday gave his backing to Rishi Sunak, has today left the role under Mr Sunak's reshuffle - as the new PM pledges to fix the "mistakes" of Liz Truss.

The Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP took to social media to say it had been a 'privilege' to serve and repeated that everyone needed to get behind the new PM.

It comes after Mr Clarke teamed up with Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen last week in a joint statement placing their backing behind former PM Boris Johnson to return as leader.

A panel of MPs has heard that local fishermen are terrified of Teesworks dredging going ahead next year - with one claiming the North Sea is experiencing an ‘extinction episode’.

Joe Redfern, secretary of Whitby Commercial Fishing Association told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee yesterday that he thinks further dredging could bring an end to the North East fishing industry.

Teesworks did not start dredging until September this year and it is currently depositing the sediment on land, it won’t be disposing at sea until next year.

Maintenance dredging is carried out all year round.

A mass die-off saw huge numbers of crustaceans wash up on our area's beaches last October.

Defra has ruled it is due to an algal bloom, whereas some academics believe it was caused by dredging that has unearthed a chemical called pyridine.